Hermann Makes A Saddle And Longs For Companionship

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Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about the Wild West and the incredible story of an 11 year old German boy, Hermann, who was captured by an Apache war party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.

He's now 16 years old at this point in the story and has become a full blown warrior who hates and fears the White man. And in fact, has taken many a scalp.

Yesterday's post

In the last post Hermann was still on the run and we talked about his daily existence, cautions, and some of the struggles he and his horse endured.

He wasn't just sitting around camp all day if he found a spot where he thought it was safe. In the village the women were experts at finding roots, berries, nuts and fruit to eat and they also prepared the game that the men brought in.

But by himself he had to do everything, which meant not only finding food but preparing it and tanning hides and making clothing like moccasins. He had a file with him with one end having an awl so he used that to punch holes and used sinew for thread to stitch the hides together.

Hermann makes a saddle

The saddle he had was hurting his horse, he called it a "forked stick" saddle. Here's a photo of an original saddle from the 1800's:

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It doesn't look very comfortable but Hermann's must have been more rudimentary and was cutting into his horse so he made his own by tanning a buffalo hide and using that to wrap a wooden frame which he made of wood and shaped to the contour of his horse.

The tanning process took awhile because the hide had to have all the fat and meat removed. This was done by stretching it out with stakes or laying it over a smooth log and then using a stone or bone tool to scrape it clean. It was a painstaking process.

An ancient Indian secret

The ancient method used by the Indians to soften the hide was to use the brain of the animal, mixed with a small amount of water into a paste which the hide was coated with. That was removed after a couple days and the hide could be worked and made very pliable and soft.

Of course, the White man uses harsh, toxic chemicals for softening.

An additional method used to color the hides in different shades was to smoke them over coals of green wood. This also made them soft and a smoked hide keep flies and insects away.

Here's a photo of Chippewa Indians smoking a hide:

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The women of the tribes were experts at making beautiful coats, robes and jackets and many times created stunning designs on them:

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Naturally Hermann's work was pretty crude but was functional. He spent many days crafting the custom saddle and fitting it to his horse until it fit perfectly and was very comfortable for them both, he put buffalo robes for blankets under the saddle.

As the weeks and months wore on Hermann started feelin a bit hollow inside. He would lay down at night and marvel at the stunning celestial panorama, the untold numbers of stars and the constellations, some of which were painted on his trusty shield.

Loneliness starts getting to him

He began to have a longing for companionship. It had been over a year since he struck out on his own.

He didn't know the state of relations between his tribe and the Comanches and he didn't know the Comanche language but he reckoned he could communicate well enough with signs. He hoped.

In the next post Hermann tracks down a Comanche War Party.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas

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